Name that meat?

[hal4uk]

Couldn't resist sharing this from Wiki about Beef Clod

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_clod

"It is often served in institutional cafeterias due to its low price and the fact that it is easily mass cooked in dishes such as soups, lasagna, and gruel"

Love that Institutional Gruel  ;)

I think "USDA SELECT" and "GRUEL" are pretty much interchangable.
(Uhhhhhhh-Oohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I feel another smack-down comin' on!)  ;D

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Clod is a good route to go for braising or maybe sausage.  Just expect to do a lot of separating and trimming.

Now on grade, I am largely with Hal, but I would say great dog food material.  But if you want the really "bad" stuff, try USDA Standard -- that's the bottom rung, one step below Select, they don't even put a grade label on the cryopac, just the USDA inspection mark and the packers label.  Picked up a brisket cryopac at Kroger on Sunday too see what it was, no grade label, Standard.  Just say NO!

[Smoking Rebel]

How did your smoke turn out??

[Caneyscud]

Not trying to be funny or anything, but if I could get my hands on some cushion, I'd buy it in a moment.  Talk about some juicy pulled pork!  More fat - richer tasting. 

As far clod - they are good eats.  I prefer brisket, but clods are nice when cooking for a big bunch of folks and they don't know the difference from brisket or pulled pork.  They don't slice up as nicely as a brisket - they are sorta a mishmash of muscles.  You do have to watch out with the selects.  To be the best BBQ, you have to find the fattiest one you can.  Select generally means a little tougher and a little less fat.  Low n slow can take care of the toughness, but you have to have enough fat to handle the long cook.  As previously stated it is often used in institutions and restaurants where they use braising techniques.  I've bought the Sam's chuck clod - or roll sometimes, but have not been as happy with it as I have had with a local beef reseller's shoulder clod.  Supposedly, the local guy says his cut comes from a better/more tender part of the shoulder than a chuck clod/roll.   I can't disagree

Moral of the story!

If you can find some cus.....no I can't finish that one!!!!!

Let's go with ---  Not all clods are the same!

BTW - Even though I've only had one or two and that was 12-15 years ago, I'd buy a cushion over a butt anyday. 

[SoCalBuilder]

Wow guys! Thanks for the education. No smoke last weekend, conflicting schedules, iffy weather and the ongoing construction of the new palace for the OBS. I am going to take a stab at my first brisket this weekend, come hell or high water. They did have packers there, although I don't recall the price. Maybe when I get a little more experience, I'll try a clod, but I'll have to make up a new name for it. Smoking a clod just doesn't get my tastebuds excited. Maybe something French.

I'll definitely give the cushion a try Caney for the next shot at pulled pork. on my first attempt, I pulled it too early and it didn't just fall apart. Still good though. More to follow.

[Habanero Smoker]

Also keep in mind that grading is optional, and is not a requirement. You rarely find Angus that is graded. A meat processor must pay extra to have their meat graded, and there are a few that do not choose to have this added cost. Seeing no grade doesn't necessarily mean that it was ungradable or Standard. But I would treat it with caution and ask the butcher.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

HabS,  almost of the Angus beef I find is graded.  The exception is that which comes with the "Certified Angus Beef" tag on the pack, then it's never graded.  In our region Sam's current standard is graded Angus, all Choice except for the whole briskets which are Select (packer flats are Choice).  Lately Kroger has been carrying a lot of Select graded Angus (no Choice that I have seen), and Randall's (Safeway) has been carrying some CAB, but to my uneducated eye the CAB they have offered isn't Choice equivalent.  It surely isn't simple.

[Habanero Smoker]

In my area Angus is usually Certified or ungraded.

[FLBentRider]

They had ungraded non-angus packers at my local wal-mart.

I put the brisket down, and slowly backed away.

[hal4uk]

I put the brisket down, and slowly backed away.

Good idea.
Awrighten.

[Gizmo]

SoCalBuilder,
The Mrs heard about that Business Costco from someone at her work.  We plan on making a trip this weekend.   :o

[Habanero Smoker]

They had ungraded non-angus packers at my local wal-mart.

I put the brisket down, and slowly backed away.

I don't want to stray to far from my original point. The point is that the USDA grade of meat is voluntary and optional. Ungraded meat does not always mean it is a low grade of meat, so I always ask the butcher or meat cutter. If they do not know then I put it back in the case. At WalMart, that is different, there is generally no one to ask.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

HabS is right - grading is optional and paid for by the packer.  Second, from what HabS said about the norms in his area, common store and marketing practices difffer by region (all of the Angus beef I have seen in cryopacs is USDA quality graded except for CAB (which is a brand with it's own quality standards).  There are other brands (such as American Waygu, Sterling Silver, etc.) which are similarly not USDA graded.  It's all up to the packer.

That said, most retail sellers have historically required USDA graded beef.  That practice seems to be changing.  Maybe it's an economic thing,  But for my money if it doesn't have a grade shield or is a brand that I know and want I'm not buying it.

The sad part is that it's not just at Wal-Mart that there is no one to ask, it's many of the other major retail chains that have dismantled their in-store meat cutting in favor of case-ready packaged products (a Wal-Mart innovation).  I had a recent experience at a Kroger Signature store when they were having a big pork sale and cases were full of store packaged stuff.  Knowing that all of Kroger's branded pork is enhanced (caries the "Moist and Tender" label), I asked the stores head cutter if the pork was enhanced.  He looked at me puzzled and asked
"what's that ?".  I said something about added salt solution, broth, etc, and referenced the Moist and Tender brand.  His response was "I don't know, we just repackage it".  I asked him to show me a cryopac - he pulls out a Moist and Tender labeled butt and tells me it's all the same and then said he didn't know what enhanced pork was, to him it's just pork.  Buyer beware!

BTW, there are four other grades of beef that almost never show up in the retail meat chain, except as processed products.  They are all below Standard in quality -- Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner.  Some of that ends up in pre-ground beef.

[kaskiles]

According to this site:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/inspection_&_grading/index.asp

The Quality grading differences for prime, choice and standard seem to be based on marbling.  They reference the higher quality grades as being appropriate for dry heat cooking and the lower grades needing moist cooking.

Seems like if you see an ungraded brisket or chuck roast that visually has a lot of marbling, then it should be suitable to the Bradley low/slow/moist cooking method.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

It's more than just marbling - age of the beast, or maturity, as judged by skeletal and lean meat appearances is the other requirement.  You can have decently marbled but "old" beef that would prevent it from grading well, or it could be bullock which, if graded, would have to be labeled as such.

I just went and looked up the stats at the USDA AMS site for percent of beef slaughter that gets graded.  Typically 90-95% of the steer and heifer slaughter is USDA graded, in 2009 it was 94.1% of the S/H slaughter, and 80.2% pf the total beef slaughter was graded (total adds cow, bullock and bull).  In 2009 only 0.2% of the graded beef was standard, and none of which was graded was lower.  My understanding is that very little of what would be graded as Standard or lower ever gets presented to the inspectors for grading - it's gets separated as non-graded beef.  I can only speculate but my guess would be that most of the beef sold ungraded without other quality brand labeling is falls outside the desired grade standards (Prime, Choice and Select) based on maturity or may be cow or bullock.  That doesn't mean it's bad, just doesn't meet the standards that most find desirable.

edit added:  Doing a little math, the total U.S. slaughter in 2009 was 25.5 billion lbs, 20.5 billion was graded representing 94.1% of the steer/heifer slaughter and 80.2% of the total slaughter, which suggests ~ 3.8 billion lbs of cow/bullock/bull slaughtered.